Dylan O'Brien (above) and team mate Eddie Dunbar have been two of the best juniors in the country this year and as the season draws to a close they did the double today; taking the final stage and overall win in the A2-A3 race at the Charleville Two Day.
Dylan O’Brien has won the Charleville Park Hotel Two Day this afternoon, Sunday, after a thrilling final stage.
The O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk rider - still a first year junior - escaped with teammate Eddie Dunbar midway through the stage and stayed away to the finish, crossing the line with over a minute to spare on the chasers behind – a group of around 30 riders.
Dunbar took the stage win, with O’Brien just behind him, and the latter won the overall by seven seconds courtesy of having bested Dunbar by that same margin in this morning’s time-trial.
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“It’s the biggest win of my life and I’m speechless,” O’Brien told stickybottle.
“I wouldn’t have done it without Eddie though. He was unbelievable today. He’s the best I’ve ever seen without a doubt and this win is as much for him as me.”
O’Brien, who spent a good chunk of the summer racing in Belgium and Holland with the Irish team, went into the final stage in fourth position, 21 seconds down on race leader Dylan Foley (Nicolas Roche Performance Team).
He turned in a brilliant performance and had enough time at the finish to celebrate the biggest win of his life.
And no one can argue he didn’t deserve it, because not only has he spent much of this season and last riding in support of Dunbar, he has pulled out results throughout the year when chances arose – starting back in February when he took third place in the Lacey Cup, a race won by Sean Lacey.
O’Brien was sixth on yesterday’s opening stage – a bunch sprint won by Danny Bruton - was fourth in the time trial this morning and second this afternoon. So the win was as deserved as it was hard-earned. Clearly he’s in the form of his life and having won the inaugural Rás Kilmallock last weekend, his only regret is that the racing season is now at a close.
Spare a thought for defending champion Dylan Foley of the Nicolas Roche Performance Team though, who put the nightmare of the National Junior time-trial behind him by blitzing everyone in this morning’s test against the clock to take the yellow jersey into stage three.
He beat the national championships TT bronze medallist Sean Hahessy by a whopping 15 seconds. He was Foley's nearest challenger, despite Foley actually clocking a slower time than last year.
Still, with the backing of yesterday’s stage winner Danny Bruton, as well as the national junior road race champions from the last two years – Fintan Ryan and Liam Corcoran - and David McCarthy, Foley had a very good team going into the final stage wearing the yellow jersey.
Interestingly, he held a smaller margin on second place going into the final day last year, and had no team, but still won, which probably says more about the strength of O’Brien and Dunbar today than anything else.
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But Foley won’t be too disappointed because the team won two stages and held yellow – no bad achievement - while he also has the consolation of the World Championships in Florence in a little over two weeks.
The final stage today was a nervy affair, with the top 10 separated by just 33 seconds – and seven teams represented. But the tail-wind from the start meant that nothing was getting away.
The day had two nasty climbs. The first was an eight-kilometre drag up through the forest at Ballyhoura with a tricky descent, while less than five kilometres later was a short and stinging pull up out of Ballyorgan, which featured in Rás Kilmallock last weekend.
Crucially, O’Brien and Dunbar escaped before the summit of the first climb and hammered a relentless pace up over the top and down the other side, holding an initial gap of around 20 seconds.
But the next climb was one where the damage was done and it suited both flyweights perfectly. They ripped up that to drag the margin out to over a minute.
They then extended it further and at one point had 1’40” as a frantic chase ensued behind, with Foley ordering his team to the front.
Ryan and McCarthy blew up from their efforts, leaving Foley with just two men around him. And that wasn’t enough to reel in the two riders out front.
And while Foley managed to hold on to third overall, the day belonged to O’Brien.
“We had a plan from the start and it worked out perfectly," said the overall winner.
"The plan was to attack the race and put the yellow jersey in trouble. I went on the climb of Ballyhoura and got around 20 metres of a gap and when I looked back I could see Eddie coming across. I knew that was the move then and we just hammered it to the finish. I’m completely delighted.”
Full results when we have them.
